The blog of fantasy author Shanna Swendson. Read about my adventures in publishing and occasionally life.

Monday, January 04, 2016

Little Changes

Happy New Year! I took the holiday weeks entirely off (other than some work-related reading) to try to recharge, and now I'm actually eager and excited about getting back to work. As usual, I started with all kinds of grand plans and intentions about basically changing the world today, but then sanity prevailed and I set reasonable goals. I'll merely change the world by the end of the week, instead.

Today started with two big changes. Well, small changes, but it's funny how small changes can make a difference. I had to make an emergency Target run before church yesterday because my bedside lamp keeled over. It was a ginger jar style, and the part that held the bulb socket on disengaged entirely and fell down into the jar, leaving the socket and bulb dangling over the side. Since I got this lamp in eighth grade, I figured I could replace it. The shade was still good, so I found a new lamp base that I didn't entirely hate at Target. It's very different, but it's growing on me. I thought in the store that it was too modern for my rather Victorian bedroom, but in the setting it has a kind of Art Deco retro look that works. It's higher than the old lamp, though, so it took some fumbling around to turn the lamp on this morning. The usual arm angle no longer worked, which meant I had to pry my eyes open to find the switch.

And part of that was because of the other change: I replaced my featherbed with a memory foam mattress topper, since Target had those on sale. I'm a side sleeper, so I need something with a bit of squish to it on my mattress. I realize that you can now get mattresses designed that way, but I'm holding off on mattress purchases until I figure out and change my living situation. I liked the featherbed on top of the mattress, but it's getting older, so it's less fluffy. The main problem with it, however, is that you have to take the whole bed apart to make the bed. The featherbed has to be fluffed out every day, and that means taking off the covers and the bottom sheet, shaking out the featherbed, and then remaking the whole bed. As a result, I seldom made the bed, but I still had to go through the process before bed at night because the featherbed isn't comfortable unless you fluff it up. The guest bed at my parents' house had a memory foam topper, and it was comfortable, so when I found one on sale, I gave it a shot. It was really comfortable, but it's lower than the featherbed, which made it even more difficult to grope for the new, higher lamp. But the big difference was that making the bed involved pulling the covers up. The day tends to go better and my house gets and stays cleaner when I make the bed, so this could end up having a ripple effect. I'll have to get used to how flat and square the bed looks now, though.

As for the rest of my holiday, I saw the new Star Wars (twice) -- more on that later. I spent more time than I planned with my parents at Christmas because of the nasty storm between there and my home that took two days to get past so my way was clear. Fortunately, my house wasn't in the area affected by the tornadoes, and we only had one scary tornado warning at my parents' house, but that turned out to be on the other side of town and was radar-only, nothing actually on the ground.

I may have overdone the socializing during the holiday weeks, with so many parties, to the point I snuck out of last night's choir party early because I'd just hit my limit. This week goes back to almost my normal schedule of activities, aside from yoga class. And that means it's time to get back to work. I have a book to finish, some publicity to work on, and so many other things I want to accomplish.